1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for insulating, thermally conditioning and Soundproofing a work area of textile machines, more particularly it aims at insulating, soundproofing and air-conditioning the spindle work area of a winding machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In winding machines the covering yarn is wound onto the core yarn by means of spindles rotating at considerable speed, driven by means of tangential belts or individual electric motors.
During their motion the spindles, a few hundreds of which can be fitted on a winding machine, generate an unpleasant and excessively high level of noise, a considerable increase in the temperature of the working environment as well as a sharp decrease in the relative humidity of the air in the working environment itself.
The unhealthiness of the working environment in which the winding machines operate forces firms to install special and costly air-conditioning systems in working departments.
Additionally, it should be noted that the vorticose air motions produced by the moving parts of the machine circulate dust which is deposited on the yarns and makes them undesirably dirty.
An apparatus is known which aims at avoiding the disadvantages described, comprising an open cover which is around the spindles area of the winding machine which is simply connected to a suction fan for removing the heated air which forms by the movement of the spindles in the spindle area. The heated air is then conveyed outside of the working environment partly avoiding the increase in temperature of the room which houses the winding machine.
Nevertheless an apparatus made in this way has disadvantages both in achieving cooling and soundproofing of the working environment and in the production of a covered yarn of higher quality.
With such apparatus, in fact, the risk of contamination of the yarn by external particles is not eliminated. The air which comes into contact with the spindles and the covering yarn is in fact air which is taken directly from the working environment without being filtered and is therefore polluted and dirty air which may, in addition to dirtying the yarn, deposit dust inside the covered yarn winder. This deposited dust in the long term causes a loss of quality of the product manufactured with such yarn.
Moreover the extraction of the air from inside the cover by means of a suction fan, whose rotation speeds are not regulated according to the type of yarn being processed, generates inside the cover an often excessive flow of air which, due to aerodynamic friction, stresses the yarn, causing a considerable number of breakages of threads. Finally a yarn is produced whose quality is jeopardised by the excessive number of knots required for restoring continuity thereto.
The cover used in this apparatus has moreover the disadvantage of only containing the spindles of the winding machine and of not being also around the spindle drive transmission. Neither does it have layers of covering material with specific sound-absorbing properties; the noise level in the area cannot therefore be reduced satisfactorily.
Furthermore the cooling achieved in the working area of the spindles is also insufficient, due both to the fact that the spindle drive transmission is outside the cover and not therefore cooled, and due to the fact that the air used is taken from the environment at the temperature thereof and cooling is achieved by the simple passage of the air to the interior of the cover, in this way obtaining only low cooling efficiencies. This insufficient cooling leads to a certain increase in the temperature of the working environment which in any case means that the special and costly air-conditioning systems have to be maintained in it.
The relative humidity of the working area of the spindles, although using the abovementioned apparatus, also depends strictly on the humidity present in the working environment of the winding machine. In this case, due to the considerable influence which this humidity has on the elastic and resistance features of the yarns, a lower working speed of the winding machine has to be maintained in such circumstances in order to avoid, as far as possible, breakage of the yarns themselves. Said lower speed disadvantageously leads to a lower production rate of the winding machine.
Finally the cover does not have openings for easily inspecting the area of the spindles, thus making the work of the staff assigned to this area extremely difficult.